Fire burning above east county area

By By Richard Shaw

A fire in the mountains above East Carbon can be seen by residents today, and it is a blaze that is hard to get to.

The fire is on Patmos Ridge and apparently was started by lightning yesterday afternoon according to Rudy Sandoval the area fire management officer for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

"We have ordered up resources to get it under control," he said on Tuesday morning. "It is only about five acres now and we want to get it controlled before it gets any larger."

Sandoval, explaining that the fire is on private land, said the blaze started about 4 p.m. on Monday.

"Currently we have the local Moab helicopter working on it," he stated. "We have a hot shot crew that will be here about noon (Tuesday). We also have a Type 2 helicopter ordered up to help with bucket work."

"This fire does have the potential to get into some trees," said Sandoval with concern about some afternoon winds that could come from forecasted thundershowers that may take place statewide starting today.

While this fire was started by lightning, Sandoval wanted to remind people that statewide fire restrictions on State and Bureau of Land Management Land are going into effect his week.

While the National Forest Service has not gone into a restriction mode as of yet, it is expected they will do so in the next couple of weeks.